Running Relativity

The theory of relativity isn’t just in physics. With apologies to Albert Einstein running’s theory of relatively probably predates his ground breaking work. It probably dates back as far as the first human runner who didn’t get somewhere as fast as expected.

When the Athens Olympics dominated the headlines in 2004, we heard much about the story of Pheippides, the young Greek messenger who was dispatched by his commander to deliver news of the victory to Athens. No run in history was more important.

It was critical that the people of Athens knew about the victory, so if the Persian ships arrived at the city, the people wouldn't surrender to them. So he ran the 26 miles from Marathon to Athens without stopping for a rest. and arriving at Athens, he delivered his message, and then died.

One could imagine Pheippides, saying “I’ve done the trip a lot faster, but my pacing wasn’t too good today or I’m just not in the shape I was two years ago.”

Of course this is all fictional and no disrespect is meant towards probably the toughest marathon runner this side of Deena Kastor, but relativity will always be a big part of running as long as we strive for performance.

I learned about relativity almost as soon as I started racing over 20 years ago. Being new to the game meant I didn’t know much about other runners and remember this was long before the internet made it easy to find race results for anyone. I would congratulate the runner who was just ahead or behind me with a “great race” and based on their expectations would get the appropriate response. An 18 minute 5K is great if you’re used to running 19’s and awful if you’re used to 15’s.

For a long time I had a habit of asking a fellow runner how they did in a bit of obnoxious manner. Instead of asking them what their time was or how they did I would say “Did you break (fill in a number for a distance)”. I learned after a while that my realism wasn’t being appreciated. I was trying so hard to act like I knew a fellow runners’ expectations that I overstepped the bounds of decency and became a person to be avoided after races.

It took some humbling performances of my own especially a DNF in a marathon that made me realize the error of my ways. For the past few years as I have fought a futile battle to run times that resemble what I used to run, I have kicked the habit of asking “did you break “ to “How did you do? Or what was your time?”. I let the person tell me if it was a good or bad time for them
even though in many cases I think they realize I know the answer.

Relativity seems to be more prevalent in discussions with newer and less active runners. After a recent race where I had run high 23’s for a 5K, a person who is physically active but doesn’t race was amazed at how fast I had run. When I told him that I used to regularly run in the 18’s for the time, he said “That’s world class”. I responded “What world is that?” I was going to continue with the usual retort “It’s all relative” but I figured what’s the use.

So it’s going to continue to happen as long as there’s the dichotomy between the running obsessed on one side and the running ignorant on the other side and the best thing we can try to do is politely say thank you and avoid the word relativity.

Unless we’re talking physics.